THE SECRET SPIES IN THE SKY - Imagery, Data Analysis, and Discussions relating to Military Space

SatTrackCam Leiden (Cospar 4353) is a satellite tracking station located at Leiden, the Netherlands. The tracking focus is on classified objects - i.e. "spy satellites". With a camera, accurate positional measurements on satellites of interest are obtained in order to determine their orbits. Orbital behaviour is analysed.

Tuesday, 24 February 2009

The weather is horrible these days, so I was much surprised by short clearings developing around local midnight last night. These allowed me a short peek and photo session on comet C/2007 N3 Lulin.

In the ETX-70 (small 7 cm refractor) at 14x, visually the comet was a nice fuzzy ball with a tail in NW-SE direction. Easy to find, especially as it was only a few degrees from Saturn.

I had only a short window of opportunity to photograph the comet before clouds came in again. Below image is a stack of 24 x 10 second exposures, made with the Canon EOS 450D (@800 ISO) and EF 50/2.5 Macro lesn (@ F2.8) between 23:18 and 23:26 UTC (23 feb).

Note that the conditions were far from perfect: not the best of skies, the comet low in the sky (35 degrees), and in the middle of Leiden town! So I am happy with the result.

Saturday, 21 February 2009

Over 200 fragments of the Feb 10th collision between Kosmos 2251 and Iridium 33 have now been catalogued. Together, they form two impressive orbital planes filled with debris. The amount of Kosmos 2251 debris catalogued so far is about twice as large as that for Iridium 33 - it seems the Kosmos took the most serious blow.

Most of this debris will stay up for tens of years. About 6% of the Kosmos and 3% of the Iridium debris will decay in the next 2.7 years.

Monday, 16 February 2009

Sightings of a bright daylight fireball seen from Texas to Nebraska on February 15th, have been widely reported in the press.

Contrary to what the FAA appears to be stating, this was definitely NOT debris from the collision between the Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 satellites on February 10th.

Video footage of the fireball (see below) shows that it moved clearly too fast for that, and was of too short duration, to be decaying satellite debris. In stead it is in line with a meteoritic fireball (asteroidal debris).

There is a clear difference in speed between the two categories: asteroidal/cometary debris moves at at least 11 km/s (and usually much faster) and typically lasts only a few seconds (as this fireball did). Satellite debris decaying moves at 7.5 to 8 km/s, so clearly slower, and typically has a much longer duration (due to the slower speed, but also because it enters at shallow angles). The video footage is incompatible with the appearance of decaying satellite debris. It is completely compatible with a meteoric fireball (asteroidal debris).

Thursday, 12 February 2009

On 10 February 2009 at 16:56:00 UTC, Iridium 33 (97-051C) collided in orbit with the defunct Russian Kosmos 2251 satellite (93-036A). The collision occurred at 789 km altitude over the Siberian arctic, near 97.9 E, 72.5 N, with an orbital interception angle of 83.5 degrees. A cloud of rapidly spreading debris is now all that remains.

About the Author

Dutch, 47, PhD, stone age archaeologist, meteoriticist, satellite tracker, meteor observer, asteroid discoverer. Consultant in a Space Situational Awareness project with the Space Security Center of the Royal Dutch Air Force and Leiden Observatory. As an invited expert I advised members of Dutch Parliament about military satellite systems and their locations during a 2016 foreign affairs committee hearing about the MH17 disaster.
Asteroid (183294) Langbroek was named after me. In 2012, I received the Dr. J. van der Bilt Prize of the Royal Dutch Astronomy Association (KNVWS) for my work on meteors, asteroids and satellites.
Opinions expressed on this blog are entirely my own.
You can find me on Twitter via @Marco_Langbroek

Use of images

Use of photographs and video from this blog for scientific or educational purposes, or by news agencies in news items is allowed, provided that the source is acknowledged. Images are released under a Creative Commons BY-NC license, except for those released on Wikicommons under the license stated there, and with the addition that news media may freely use them with source acknowledgement. Note that this only concerns my own imagery posted here, not imagery by others which I post with permission!

Excerpt from United Nations resolution 2222 (XXI)

Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies

In order to promote international co-operation in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space, States Parties to the Treaty conducting activities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, agree to inform the Secretary-General of the United Nations as well as the public and the international scientific community, to the greatest extent feasible and practicable, of the nature, conduct, locations and results of such activities. On receiving the said information, the Secretary-General of the United Nations should be prepared to disseminate it immediately and effectively.